One More Servant
by Omniwriter1234
Summary: Everything needs a ruler...


Disclaimer: I do not own or claim to own in any way, shape, or form any recognizable and licensed material appearing in this work of fiction. All recognizable and licensed material appearing in this work of fiction belongs to it's respective owners in every way, shape. and form under the law and I am not attempting to or making a profit from this work of fiction in any way, shape, or form. It is done purely for entertainment, no financial gain is being made by myself personally.

AN: Well, this is a new story that I felt had to be put out, it's been a project for a long time that I only recently finished typing out. Read and review on it and another chapter will most likely be out soon.

* * *

_Magus, they always find a away to ruin something. This war has been no exception. Now children fight in it, something that will no doubt ruin it. __That is if the failsafe isn't implemented. It worked, admittedly it could have been better, during the last War and prevented much of the damage it would have faced if it had not been activated. Of course with such a moderator it is unlikely it will be implemented without my personal interference._

_It is a good thing I am not so busy that I can't._

* * *

A teen with startling white hair and equally as unique steel grey eyes, felt nothing but terror as he stared up at what was almost certainly his executioner tonight. Sure, he had a fight on a few occasions from time to time and had gotten rather severely hurt in a few of them but this was simply too much, even for the world he lived in. To make the situation even more insane, he had gotten himself into…whatever this was, from what started off as a rather normal day for him.

He had woken up, did his normal morning ritual of getting ready for school, cooking breakfast for a few people, and practicing. His "guardian", Taiga Fujimaru, came over and, as always, ate enough for an entire family before running off when she realized she was running late, again, like all the times she came over for anything involving food. Next came waiting for his rather shy but good friend, the purple haired Sakura Matou, to come over and they both ate a small breakfast, a small conversation between the two about the recent spring of "accidents" and then they left for school. He had, as always, said goodbye to Sakura at the gates before circling around in an attempt to avoid the bane of his existence…he means captain of the Archery Club from trying to convince him to return to it. He had failed that day, it was a 50/50 chance to escape her anyway, and had been dragged into the dojo. Ayako Mitsuzuri, the captain, had basically forced him into a uniform before he was stuck there for the entire morning practice.

Next, after he had escaped from Ayako holding him in the dojo all day, came classes, ones he did rather well in before he left to the Student Council Room to have lunch with the president and his good friend, Issei Ryuudou, and they talked, Issei primarily concerned about the damage to part of the school from something last night, the police had informed the faculty the grounds had been broken into and someone had torn up part of the school as part of either a joke or they were drunk. After lunch, he had gone through the day like normal, taking notes for all his classes before heading out to start a few repairs on the damage done to the school.

Sadly, Ayako grabbed him again and he was stuck in the Archery Dojo for the better part of the afternoon where he talked with Shinji Matou, Sakura's older brother and another friend of his, the two discussing recent problems in the Archery Club, the biggest one being the coming tryouts and the sudden interest of the school idol Rin Tohsaka in the Archery Club and the influx of applications the club had gotten once that news had gotten out. Ayako was less than pleased at such a thing and tended to take it out on the club when they practiced, drilling them on proper form, accuracy, and anything else she could think of.

After evening practice, he had said goodbye to both Shinji and Sakura, the two siblings heading home to their uncle's house in Fuyuki. He himself had a few more things to do at the school, one of which was to talk to Issei and begin a few minor repairs for his friend while they waited for the school to get someone out to fix the major ones. He had run into Taiga while doing so and had given her an extra bento he had fixed for her as a snack before she raced off to do some errands in town. After that, he had a short conversation with the rather cold teacher, Souichirou Kuzuki, on the man's way out as he left to the Ryuudou Temple, he lived there along with the monks and Issei and his family. Not that much time later, he had gotten his tools from a closet Issei had gotten loaned out to him and the student council president and him walked around the school, looking over the damage and while Issei wrote it all down he stopped and fixed what he could, the other stuff he would need heavier or stronger tools for he simply left alone, at least for now.

That had taken longer than either had expected and by the time they had finished their walk around the school, it was dark out and the two had said hurried goodbyes before rushing off to get home, it wasn't that safe at night in Fuyuki anymore and neither one of them wanted to end up on the news the next morning as another victim. He had made sure Issei got to the temple steps before he had started on his own way home, going at a jog as part of his evening exercise. It didn't take long before he was slipping off his shoes and stepping into the kitchen, grabbing leftovers, surprised that there were any after the signs of a Taiga Attack not too long ago all over his kitchen. He had made himself a light dinner before he began his nightly meditation and training.

That was when everything went wrong.

He had finished his training, dropping his wooden swords and pushing away the training dummies around him and putting them back into storage before he sat down and began his meditation. The familiar rapid fire pain across his body was nothing new to him and it didn't break him out of his trance, he simply deepened it and felt the familiar heat rising across his body once he blocked out the pain. He was nearing the middle of it when something like an electric jolt passed through him, screaming to him something about imminent danger to himself.

Ah, yes, it was about time to tell you something special about himself, something that made him unique. He was a Magus, a user, albeit a poor one, of Magecraft and through he only knew what was considered the basics or useless to anyone else, he had a nice mastery of them. He didn't have hundreds of spells under his belt like other Magus, he could barely move past his rather limited skills but in those he shined, a true master of them. His father had said so during his early training, at least before he passed away.

But back on topic, the electric jolt passing through him telling him of danger was the results of a rather nice Bounded Field he had constructed with the help of his father several months before his passing. It warned him of any danger around him, up to a block away from his house so he could have a fair bit of warning when something was attacking him, say now for instance.

This warning was the only thing that saved him as moments later, just as he had stepped out of the dojo, shooting out the open door like a rocket, a figure had nearly impaled him. Only his use of Reinforcement, a Magecraft involving the enhancement of an object through the use of Prana to fill it, saved him from death. He had moved his body, just narrowly enough, to avoid death and instead a blade only rammed through his shoulder. He had ignored the pain, adrenaline helping him to do so, as he envisioned a spark igniting into a raging fire and a rather plain looking silver sword with a bronze hilt appeared in his hands and he cut the figure in front of him in half.

Ah, yes, he had almost forgotten to mention, his Magic Circuits, the physical characteristic that allowed him to use Magecraft, were activated by a mental image, his father telling him everyone had their own unique way of activating them and his was of a single spark, seemingly coming from nowhere, igniting into a blazing inferno. The sword he wielded was another product of Magecraft and its creation was one of the few skills he excelled. The sword was created by Projection, the technique of using Prana, the energy created from his Magic Circuits, to create objects that would eventually be destroyed, rather quickly in most cases. His father had never gotten around to telling him why such a thing happened as his own never degraded over time, always remaining with him as long as he kept a steady, rather miniscule, supply of Prana from his Magic Circuits running to them, if he didn't than they shattered into Prana in a few days.

With this information out of the way, back to the teen's current ordeal at the time as he had destroyed one figure but more of them, close to a dozen, still flooded the hallway and he felt even more entering his house through another Bounded Field, this one giving him a mental picture of the house, one that was currently being filled with the strange figures. They looked to be skeletons, nothing more but each of them wielded some type of weapon, be it swords, clubs, spears, or a combination of one of the three with a shield, and they all possessed a single motive. It was to kill him, the sheer amount of bloodlust the seemingly mindless creations were capable of producing was making it hard to focus for the teen.

His Projection came in handy again through as he projected a second identical sword and settled into a rather basic stance, one sword set to defend and the other to attack as he closed his eyes. He wasn't that trusting of them, despite them being enhanced with Reinforcements, as his father had told him how some Magecraft specifically targeted them to create simple to complex illusions. So, instead of risking his attacker, obviously a Mage from the skeletons currently attacking him, potentially tricking him, he now relied on the Bounded Fields he had set up several years ago, close to a year after his father's death, that were designed to give him a second view of the area within it, and used them as if they were his eyes.

"Ohohohoho, it seems the little boy is more promising than I thought." A voice, female from the sounds of it, seemed to echo form every around him and carried with it a high amount of mocking. "I'll have to try a bit harder to rip you apart."

The voice's words filled him with nothing but fear for a moment, the adrenaline running through his veins seemingly freezing along with his blood. It was a struggle to simply move his body for a moment but he did, just in time to move one of his swords to knock away an arrow as his new sight allowed him to see three of his skeleton attackers now armed with bows and they were reloading them. Four of his skeletal attackers charged him, one armed with a mace, two with a sword and shield, and the last holding a spear that aimed to put a hole in his stomach. He twisted out of the way of it rather easily, one sword cutting off the head of his attacker and he was glad when it seemed enough to destroy it, the skeleton crumbling into dust and he caught a rather unique scent in the air from its destruction. Instead of focusing on it through, he chose to ignore it and parry the two swords coming at him, one from the front and the other from his right before his foot impacted cleanly with the ribs of his mace wielding opponent and the kick, enhanced by Reinforcement, sent it crashing back into two of its allies and they shattered into dust when they struck the reinforced walls of the hallway.

The teen hurried to move fast enough to kill his two currently blocked attackers and was glad when they crumbled into the same dust as the first one. He couldn't take pride in his victory through as three more skeletons charged him from the front and two arrows nearly struck him in the back. Opting for distance now, his swords were consumed in flames that gave off no heat before, through the use of the step between Reinforcement and Projection, Alteration, he managed to shift one sword into a bow with a bronze grip and a silver body and the other sword became three glowing red arrows before the glow faded to reveal they were a simple silver and plain arrow.

The three arrows were notched and fired in the span of time it took someone to blink and three skulls were removed from his charging foes before another arrow left his bow in the same amount of time, striking the single bow wielding skeleton behind him before he quickly moved back and into the dojo. He was right when he thought his attackers were dimwitted, they held little intelligence and mindlessly charged through the open door and each met an arrow that ripped off their skulls and turned their bodies into dust. With this rather simple strategy, he had beaten his dozen or so remaining skeletal attackers in mere moments.

That was when things began to go wrong, terribly, terribly, wrong.

A sudden cold, no, a mind numbing and body freezing terror swept through the room as he felt himself back into something, feminine if the hands that wrapped around his throat seconds later were one and the same.

"Ohohohoho, once again you impress me. Who would think an Archer would have such an odd ability." The voice, the same voice he had heard earlier, seemed to be both amused and enraged as they spoke, the fingers around his throat tightening as the figure spoke. "But I would never take you to be so weak, you might be a good shot but you're already dead now."

The grip tightened to painful levels now, he would have normally struggled but his body remained frozen, from what he would guess would be the figure's Magecraft.

"Caster, I'm afraid you've got the wrong person." The voice came from behind him, followed by the unmistakable sound of a bowstring being released.

Something moved past him, an arrow if his guess was right, and it forced the figure to release him or be impaled by the arrow. This gave him the much needed ability to breathe again and he dropped to the floor, panting for breath while he felt several more arrows fly over his head, each of them leading his attacker away from him and eventually to the very edge of the dojo.

"…." The figure, a woman for sure now from the voice, said something he couldn't even begin to understand and suddenly a very large hole was blasted into his walls, showing the grass outside and he struggled to his feet just as a red and black blur entered the dojo, throwing him painfully onto the ground as it passed by.

"Caster, you're a fool to leave your temple. You've signed your death warrant." The blur stopped not too far away from the woman, who he could now see wore a hooded cloak but he could still see at least a glimpse of what was underneath, light blue or light purple hair beneath the hood of her dark robe.

"Or maybe you're the fool Archer, having such an obvious Master?" the woman, the blur had called her Caster, answered back with a mocking grin as he felt her eyes move to him. "Really? A boy of that talent has to be your Master!"

"You foolish woman." The blur, a man in black armor and the red sleeves of a jacket that seemed to be called Archer, spoke with his words filled with mocking as they raised their black bow, slightly turning their head, the black helmet they wore completely obscuring their face. "My Master is not this boy."

A new arrow flew from their bow, this time the woman, Caster, barely avoided it as it tore off a piece of her cloak near the bottom, revealing the purple dress she wore beneath.

"..." The woman's, Caster he reminded himself, words were once again unintelligible to him but he did see the ripples that appeared in the air, it was as if the air was water as lights began to shine from the growing number of ripples.

The man, Archer, seemed to tense at the sight of them before he was a blur of action, a dozen or so arrows filling the air even as he took off, dashing to the side and all of this in the time it took someone to blink. The woman, Caster, was unconcerned with the arrows coming towards her at speeds he struggled to even catch a glimpse of and instead, beams of light seemed to rapidly fire from the ripples filling the air behind her. They overwhelmed the small amount of arrows and eradicated the spot where the man once stood, he was lucky to have moved when he did or he would be ash now. Archer seemed to know this as he didn't cease moving, firing several arrows every moment as he dashed in a zig –zag pattern, clearly looking to close the distance between him and Caster. The arrows came more rapidly as he drew nearer, getting closer to two dozen fired from his bow with every step Archer took to get to Caster. The increase in arrows still did not worry her as the beams of light continued to pour out from behind her, completely destroying the arrows long before they were a threat to her.

"Is that truly the best you've got Archer?" Caster's voice seemed to grow in mocking as Archer seemed to be done talking, not bothering to respond as he seemed to have accomplished what he set out to. "Is this all one of the Knights can do?"

A black sword and a white sword suddenly appeared in Archer's hands as he broke his pattern and instead made a straight charge towards Caster, throwing his weapons in front of him to block the beam of light that was immediately fired at him as two other identical swords filled his hands before they were also tossed to stop two more lights from hitting him. Again, they were replaced and this seemed to annoy Caster as suddenly a staff appeared in her hands and with it in her hands she rose into the air, her cloak opening up and spreading out like wings as a multitude of ripples moved in the air around her, particularly large ones focused on the now open cloak while smaller ones surrounded her.

"So, the boy who shares your abilities really isn't your Master, Archer?" Caster's voice sported a mocking grin as Archer took her time for speaking to rest for the moment. "Do you take me for a fool than? Your compatibility is incredible and if the boy isn't a Servant like I thought than all that Prana pouring out of him makes him a Master, your Master Archer!"

"I never said anything about the boy not being or being my Master, I'm simply here to kill you as part of the War. As for my thoughts on your intelligence, no, you're not a fool, you're actually one of the few Servants I can stand in this war. You don't have any of that pride nonsense, don't you?" Archer grinned at her as he spoke, one mirrored by Caster as power seemed to fill the air around the two.

"Of course, this is war after all." Caster's words were the last the two shared before the white haired teen saw death approach in the form of a deep purple beam of light, something he now knew was simply Prana, overwhelming amounts of it made to kill him.

Just as he was certain he was about to die through, something grabbed him and he felt himself pulled out of the way even as a red streak shot out and knocked aside the beam of light, sending it up into the ceiling where it exploded, shattering it and sending a rain of dust down on him.

"You two, just great, the worst Servants in this war next to Berserker." The teen slowly opened his closed eyes, very aware that he was now held beneath the arm of the figure who rescued him, one dressed in a blue bodysuit with metal pauldrons and their other hand held a blood red spear, the weapon holding an aura of unrestrained bloodlust around it.

"Lancer…" Archer seemed to growl the words, his black and white swords returning to his hands as he settled into a stance, one that seemed to be wide open as he held his swords out to his side. "Why did it have to be you of all the others to interfere?"

"I agree with him, you are such an annoyance with all that talking you do." Caster lowered to the ground, resting her staff against her shoulder with her mocking grin, a seemingly constant for her, turning into a rather deep frown. "Why couldn't it be that rather…delectable Saber."

"Huh, it almost hurtful you guys would prefer her over me, I guess I'll have to change your minds than." The man, Lancer from what Archer addressed him as, dropped the teen onto the ground, one who quickly backpedaled away in a hurry to put as much distant as he could between the three, for lack of a better word, monsters in front of him.

"Let's get started than, I've been dying for a good fight since Saber." Lancer spun his spear in one hand before settling into a crouch fit for a hunter with both hands on his spear, the tip angled to the side in front of him from his current position.

"I'll enjoy ending you after our first fight, Lancer." Archer stepped forward, keeping his almost suicidal open stance as he did so but Lancer, the bloodlust practically rolling off of him, didn't attack the figure in front of him, watching his every movement instead as he prepared to attack when the moment was right.

"Ah, this is too much for me, especially with your cursed spear Lancer." Caster seemed ready to leave, power swirling around her as she seemed to unconsciously rub her stomach, Lancer taking the time to smirk at her from such an action.

"I see you've still got that wound my spear put in you Caster, I guess your magic isn't as powerful as you would think." Lancer focused his attention back onto Archer before he had even finished his sentence, it was a good thing he did as Archer threw his swords forward as a black bow appeared in his hands moments later. Lancer easily knocked aside the two swords but wasn't expecting them to explode the moment he hit them with his spear, the blast not hurting him but dazing him long enough for Archer to fire off a red bullet of what looked to be Prana from his bow. Lancer, despite his daze, still managed to dodge by dashing to the side before he charged Archer, quickly putting a man who clearly preferred long range combat into close range.

"Well, if this isn't a mess I don't know what is." At the voice behind him, the white haired teen slowly turned around to see something he never expected.

The school idol, Rin Tohsaka, was standing behind him and he could feel the energy that was leaving her and heading into the figure at her side.

"Tohsa…" he never got to finish his sentence, a black sphere slammed into his stomach, tearing apart his shirt and he was simply glad he had kept up his Reinforcement or else he would have a hole in his body instead of a deep purple bruise.

"Why don't you just die?" Tohsaka was very different from the one he knew at school, the one always smiling and willing to help anyone, a natural born leader to everyone at school. This one, this one wasn't smiling, her face was expressionless and her eyes, they were like bottomless pits to him.

"Tohsaka, what are you doing?" the teen struggled to even crawl away at the blinding pain moving through his body, making it feel as if it was being crushed, pummeled, burned, ripped apart and anything else as he desperately tried to get away from the suddenly insane Tohsaka.

"Master, this boy isn't a threat, I sense no Servant is connected to him, it wouldn't matter as all seven of us have already been summoned." The blonde girl, dressed in armor a knight would wear seemed against Tohsaka attacking him but she did nothing to truly stop her, a strange glint he couldn't truly identify in her eyes even as she seemingly spoke in protest. "There is little reason to kill him."

"You must feel his power Saber, this isn't something to be ignored." Tohsaka's voice was empty, it carried nothing and the growing black energy gathering in her hand was enough for the teen to take his next action.

"Trace." The mental image of a spark igniting into an inferno was now back in his mind and he felt the familiar warmth engulf his body. "Load."

The plain silver and bronze swords he had used to deal with the skeletons that had first attacked him this night were now floating above him, close to a dozen of them and they were growing, each one appearing in a small burst of flames.

"Lock."

"Saber, kill him!" Tohsaka's voice was panicked as the number of sword continued to grow, all of them radiating bloodlust and locked onto her, sending wave after crushing wave towards her that had her grasping for breath, the sensation seemingly knew to her as she took hurried steps back as the blonde next to her took a step forward, seemingly holding a sword in empty hands.

"What the? Saber?" Lancer slowed his relentless attack on the sword wielding Archer, his eyes taking on an almost maniacal glee as he threw himself out of the fight and towards the teen and the sword wielding blonde, seemingly this Saber.

"Fire."

A storm of steel almost instantly consumed Saber, the blonde moving at almost impossibly fast speeds that seemed to pale in comparison to the wall of flames behind the teen, one that unleashed a constant wave of steel on her, occupying her for now.

"Trace!" the teen stepped back into the wall of flame, another of his silver and bronze swords appearing in his hands as he made a blitz around the wall of flames keeping the unnaturally skilled blonde from intercepting him as he made a break towards the now panicking Tohsaka.

"_Shirou, remember one simple fact, even if you forget all my other lessons I want you to remember one thing. When you're life is threatened, when someone wants to kill you, I want you to promise me one thing._

"_Dad…"_

"_No, Shirou, don't try to stop me, I need you to promise me, promise me you'll do exactly what I tell you!"_

"_I…"  
"Shirou! Promise me!"_

"_I…I promise."_

"_Good. Now, don't interrupt me no matter what you may want to say."  
_

_"When you're life is threatened by another Magus, when they want to kill you because of what you are. I want you to hold nothing back, kill them and make sure of it."_

"_You can talk now."  
_

_"WHAT! I can't do that dad! I…I can't be a hero if I kill someone!"_

"_You…"_

"_Da...__"  
_

_"Being a hero doesn't matter if you're dead Shirou. Nothing you do matters if you die before you can even do anything! You have to fight sometimes Shirou and a lot of times, in the world you want me to let you in, you need to not only fight but you have to kill."_

"_So, Shirou, if you truly want to be a hero, if you truly want to be someone to stand for justice, you must kill your enemies. You must utterly destroy them, crush them, rip them apart if you have to! It is better to kill a few to save more, no matter how horrible it may seem to you! Nothing you do matters if you cannot accept this!"_

"_Dad, please…"  
_

_"Don't ignore this Shirou! I don't care if you never remember anything else I teach you but this one, it is by far the most important one I will ever teach you!"_

'Dad, I…I finally understand.'

"Saber!" Tohsaka screamed for the blonde to come to her but the wall of steel would rip her apart the moment she turned to do so and she knew this, the primarily reason why the swords were so relentless was so she couldn't help her, couldn't stop Shirou from killing a new threat to his life.

"Rin!"

A blood red lance shattered his two swords just as he swung them down and the sudden wave of bloodlust shattered his concentration and the swords pinning Saber down stopped, the blonde immediately rushing towards Tohsaka as Lancer grabbed his arm and tossed him aside just as Saber would have reached him. Instead of her sword ripping him apart, it was instead deflected by Lancer who then immediately leaped back to avoid her almost immediate attempt to take off his head.

"Finally! I get to fight you again Saber!" Lancer's face wore a bloodthirsty grin as the barbed tip of his spear was leveled at Saber's heart. "It's about time."

"Now is not the time to do battle Lancer, my Master is more important to me than your lust for battle, if you face me now I will annihilate you." Saber turned her eyes towards him for a single moment, meeting his grey eyes with cold green ones. "My sword should be pointed at another."

"Really now?" Lancer smirked as he blurred forward, ignoring Saber's warning to back away from the fight. His blitz was easily dodged by the surprising agile Saber, many would think she would be clumsy in her armor, and she rushed towards Shirou, managing to deliver a single painful blow to his chest that threw him back before Lancer's spear shot forward, aiming to remove her left arm at the shoulder before she quickly turned around and knocked aside his spear, focusing all of her attention on Lancer now.

Shirou tried to get his breathing under control, his chest now aching after Saber's single but powerful blow, making it hard to breath for the moment. He struggled to even move away from the two now fighting figures in front of him, well he struggled until something grabbed the back of his shirt.

"Come with me if you want to live boy." Archer's voice came from behind him, a hand grabbing the back of his shirt and dragging him off, away from the fight that could kill him just by being near it. "My Master seems to have a foolish interest in you."

"Release him!" a black and purple blur slammed into Archer, throwing the man back while grabbing the white haired teen and throwing him across their shoulder.

A weapon that seemed to simply be a nail on a chain would have punched through the man's head, ignoring his armor, if his bow hadn't been moved to knock it aside even as an arrow appeared in his free hand. Before the nail could be pulled back, several arrows fired through a few links, pinning it to the wall in such a way to stop the blur from moving, moving to entangle them in their own weapon. A second nail appeared in their hand to prevent this, cutting through the chain of the first one.

"Rider, of course you would get involved." Archer lowered his bow, deciding against taking another shot against the now named Rider. "Your Master must be a fool to involve themselves in this, leave the boy to me and I'll consider letting you live, nothing will save you this time if you don't."

"Do you really think you can even catch me? You still have to see what you shoot Archer." Rider, from the way the way their voice sounded was a woman, laughed softly as she spoke. "I'm taking him with me for my Master."

"Try it if you think you can." Archer's free hand now held a black arrow, one that was steadily being filled with energy from him.

Rider seemed to not want to risk being attacked as she left so threw him down, the teen now getting a good look at yet another person giving off insane levels of energy to him. She was by far the most unique character he had seen tonight, long purple hair nearly reaching the floor, a tight black dress on that barely covered anything, and, strangest of all, a blindfold on her face.

"Stay where you are boy, my Master wants to speak with you still." Rider didn't bother with anymore words, lunging towards Archer even as three of her nail like weapon flew from one hand, aiming to kill her opponent before he could launch an arrow.

Shirou hadn't stayed where Rider had dropped him, he had decided it was time to run to the one place he thought he could be safe at, his workshop, a shed at the back of the yard. Of course, this created a problem as the shed was, as said not too long ago, at the end of the yard, a place he had doubts he could reach with the insanity currently taking part on his property.

'I've got to run for it, hopefully I won't draw their attention if I stick to the side.' He knew it was a foolish thought but decided to at least pretend his plan could work as he briefly closed his eyes, a spark once again creating an inferno as he felt his body strengthen itself, he could feel everything in him grow stronger, his blood pumped faster, his muscles tensed with barely restrained power, his eyesight sharpened. Instead of dwelling on the rush of new feelings, he instead focused his mind at the task at hand. He needed to live through this and to do that he needed to get what was kept in the shed. 'Please let this work.'

He didn't bother at going at anything less than a full sprint, his Magic Circuits running overtime to apply Reinforcement to his body at almost dangerous levels, something he ignored as the door to the shed neared. He wasn't fazed when three beams of light, something he now knew was simply Prana, hit the ground behind him, he didn't even bother to stop when one slammed into his back, burning away what remained of his shirt on his back and searing his skin. He simply cut off any sensation at his back, ignoring the pain as he felt his Reinforcement wavering, the influx of Prana he was sending in threatening to actually destroy his body at the rate he was going.

'Five meters, make it.'

Another beam of light slammed into his back, this time at his shoulder and this one didn't seem designed to burn him, instead it was designed to simply throw him off balance. This was something it succeeded in doing as he spun to the ground, his back slamming against the door along with his head, the force enough to daze him but luckily, or unluckily to him, the force he hit the door with was enough to break down the normally Reinforced door, throwing him into the shed but sending him in end over end, his roll only stopped when he hit his work bench and it collapsed onto his enhanced body. Luckily only the pieces of a few taken apart appliances, an old toaster, microwave, what was really junk to most people, were the only things that landed on him, the blades he usually kept on it had thankfully fallen behind him, thrown off the table at his impact, before the whole thing collapsed on him.

"Oh my, you are quite the resilient pest to still be alive, my second shot should have at least taken off your arm but it failed."

"Caster, leave him! He's mine!"

"Get back here Saber, are fight is far from finished!"

The woman, Caster, stepped aside when the blonde, Saber, rushed towards her and into the shed and the blue haired Lancer followed not too far behind her, bloodlust rolling off of him in waves and a grin on his face despite the rather severe wounds he sported, one of them a deep cut along his chest that leaked large amounts of blood onto the floor. The blonde, Saber, seemed to have eyes only for him, the twin emerald orbs shining with bloodlust despite the rather cold look on what looked to be a young woman's face. The sword pointed at him, invisible or not, was also a good indicator of what the swordswoman wanted to do to him.

"Speak your last words boy and then I will kill you for attacking my Master." Saber lowered her sword, very slightly but lowered it nonetheless, when she spoke and he found himself beyond fear, he was absolutely terrified at what was in front of him. With his rather heightened senses, senses already unique even by Magus standards, he saw for the first time what he was actually fighting. Monsters, all of the…things in his yard were nothing but monsters made of Prana, insane amounts he had never even imagined could exist.

"I….I'm…going to die! I'm going to die here! She's going to kill me!' Shirou's thoughts were nothing but panicked as he desperately tried to crawl away, his terror filled mind forgetting the fact that he was blocked by the rather heavy remains of his work bench. His still active Reinforcement proved rather useful now, it allowed him to at least push through the already mostly shattered table, splitting it in half as Saber began to take clearly measured steps towards him, not giving him any distance as she kept her sword pointed at him.

"Say something already boy! Give me your name at least!" Saber's voice was closer to a growl now, she was obviously annoyed at Shirou's terror and her eyes shifted slightly, now there was less of a murderous light to them and instead they held now some disgust at Shirou's actions.

"I…"

"Speak already!" winds whipped through the shed, the sudden winds obviously caused by a now angered Saber, her irritation swiftly vanishing and being easily replaced by quickly growing fury. "You worthless coward, speak soon or I will kill you!"

"I…I…"

"Enough!" Saber seemed to have snapped at his stuttering, diving forward and her sword cut through his skin with ease, ripping through his chest, leaving skin, muscle, and bone cut away by the sword swiftly pulled from his chest without a care at the obvious agony the wound caused him. "I am through with your cowardice!"

"N…" an armored foot connected squarely with his ribs, several cracking as Saber's face twisted into a sneer, her cold mask falling away as bloodlust shined clearly in her eyes.

"Cowards do not speak in my presence, die in agony trash like you deserves!" Saber continued to stomp of him, the strange glint returning to her eyes from when she had first arrived and now Shirou could very clearly recognize it, he had seen something like it in the face of bullies just before he walked up to them.

Saber took a twisted pleasure in what she was doing, seeing his pain was entertainment for her and she seemed to enjoy inflicting it more than simply seeing it, her eyes were far more intense than when she had seen use Rin use Magecraft on him not too long ago.

"Huh, looks likes our fight's over with now." Lancer slung his spear over his shoulder, his posture no longer like that of a hunter, instead it was one you would find on someone who was bored, wishing they were doing what they were doing not too long ago. "Move aside and I'll finish the kid off, he did see all of this after all."

"Die you trash!" Saber's foot crushed his shoulder next, her eyes shining with amusement when she saw she had ripped him back from the edge of consciousness and back to a painful alertness. "Filth like you shouldn't be allowed to live! You're nothing but worms, something to be crushed under my heel!"

Shirou let out another scream of pain as Saber ground her foot into his shattered shoulder, tearing through his Reinforcement yet again with ease. Lancer's bored eyes very quickly sharpened, clear displeasure in them as he swung their lance down, slipping it into a better grip in one hand.

"Saber, enough of your little games, just kill him already or move out of my damn way." Lancer's voice carried a clear warning in it, one that convinced Saber to listen to him.

"Tch, you're interrupting this worm's punishment." Saber tightened her grip on her invisible sword, her eyes focused on the agonized teen. "I'm surprised this filth has lived so long in the first place, I've never gotten this much time out of any of them before."

"Just end him Saber or let me, I want to finish our fight." Lancer's tone was now one that clearly held a threat, his spear was no longer slung over his shoulder and he now gripped the middle of it in one hand, the other brimming with Prana that helped enforce his legend of a master of runes. "Where's your honor if you do something like this?"

"Quiet Dog!" Saber's once emerald eyes were changing, bleeding into dark amber as she snapped to look at Lancer, her eyes filled with nothing but bloodlust, barely controlled but something was keeping it held back, something that Lancer had more than enough experience with, something similar in his eyes, one that is always under his control. "DO NOT SPEAK TO ME!"

"Tch, fine then." Lancer crouched slightly, his lips moving into a grimace, clearly disliking the situation. "Since you won't listen to my words, I'll do this my way."

"WHAT!" Saber turned her full attention to Lancer, missing a peculiar thing as Shirou's wounds seemed to slowly heal, a quiet grating heard as he slowly moved back, struggling to even crawl away from the two monsters in front of him.

"Huh, seems like this War's Saber is more suited for the Berserker class." Archer and Rider had long stopped fighting, simply observing the two battling Knight cards. It was…interesting to say the least at seeing Saber's behavior, one usual restricted to another class, not one that always summons a noble and chivalrous knight. "This war is shaping up to be quite entertaining."

"You've dodged my question Archer." Rider held a new nail, her seventh so far during their fight, in her hands, not raised but still very much a threat to Archer. "What do you want the boy for?"

"I suppose I have to answer you now." Archer sighed, clearly annoyed at Rider's persistence, something he had become quite acquainted to during their fight, however brief it was. Archer sighed again before he chose to answer, turning slightly to look at the shed off to the side of the two. "My Master is interested in the boy, they told me something about him being special."

"That's all?" Rider rose a single eyebrow, her free hand on her hip, clearly skeptical of his reasons. "You're doing all of this because your Master believes he's special? And here I thought an Archer would have a bit more sense, your skill is always Independent Action, I would figure you would actually use it when your Master acts such a way."

Archer gave a small mirthless grin as he gave a short shake of his head.

"I am my Master's Servant, their will is mine as y…" Archer snapped his attention fully to the shed, Rider doing the same, both wearing identical looks of disbelief on their faces.

"What is this?" Rider absentmindedly rubbed at her throat, an almost suffocating power rolling out of the shed near them.

"No…Impossible!" Archer took off towards the shed, his eyes wide in both disbelief and panic as his body broke through the wall, just in time to be blinded by a flash of light.

A few minutes earlier…

Shirou was desperate, desperate to get away from the sadistic monster in front of him, even as she rose another armored foot to break his leg this time.

"Enough!" Lancer's spear shot out, Saber narrowly avoiding having her foot taken off by it as she quickly jumped back on one leg, amber eyes slowly turning back to their emerald color. "Enough of your sick game with that brat!"

"Stay out of this Lancer!" Saber swung wildly at Lancer, amber slowly bleeding back into her eyes, something both Shirou and Lancer could now see where the signs of growing bloodlust for her. "This coward is going to die!"

Saber's blows were either deflected or thrown aside by Lancer's impossibly fast spear, throwing aside her sword with every blow she made and making an attempt to stab her with every movement Lancer made. Saber was too fast to be hit, far too fast but she was crazed, swinging wildly and moving only on raw instincts, instincts created from countless battles she must have faced. Lancer had faced countless foes like this, crazed in battle and almost unpredictable to most, to him it just made the fight more enjoyable. No calculated movements, no worthless planning, this was simply a fight between the two of them, something he had been trying to have with her for a few days now.

Shirou felt himself thrown back by the shockwave behind the vicious battle between the two, he found it impossible to even believe things like the two warriors in front of him existed but right now he was more concerned with avoiding Saber, she was so far the second one of these monsters tonight to want to kill him, something he wanted to avoid if at all possible.

"Is that all you've got Saber?" Lancer deftly avoided Saber's many wild strikes, sending back three or so thrusts of his spear in return every time, something to keep Saber from simply pressing her attack, flattening him with her swordsmanship skills. "I thought you were supposed to know how to use that thing!"

"DIE! DIE! DIE!" Saber's now glowing amber eyes were crazed as she wildly swung at Lancer, her blows holding no strategy at this point, she simply wanted to hurt Lancer in any way possible.

A particularly strong clash created yet another powerful shockwave, one that threw Shirou, the teen just managing to struggle to his feet, back and through a bookcase he was working on, a small repair for one of the shelves, and only very hasty Reinforcement saved his life, it hurt like hell since it was done so quickly but it was worth it to still be alive. Sadly, Saber seemed to focus her attention on him at the sound of the crash. A plated foot nearly snapped Lancer's blood red spear in half, that fact itself pointless as the force behind it threw the blue haired fighter back, slamming through the wall behind him and punching through the into the alley not far beyond it. With Lancer now gone, Saber turned her attention on Shirou fully, something he desperately didn't want as a crazed bloodthirsty grin occupied what was usually a lovely face, her once neat blonde hair was in disarray around her head, further adding to the crazed look she possessed now, ever since she had first decided to attack Shirou and Lancer had chosen to intervene.

"Ready to die?" the tip of the invisible sword she had wielded against Lancer was almost instantly pressed to his throat as Shirou felt himself consumed by nothing but sheer terror now, something he wasn't that unaccustomed too after the night he had been through.

"What are you?" despite anything else he could have said, those were the words he asked his what would undoubtedly be his death.

He didn't get an answer, the blade was suddenly withdrawn from his throat when a beam of light made to strike Saber from behind, one that was effortlessly knocked aside without much effort on her part.

"Ohohoho, I can't have you killing such an interesting experiment now, why don't you run along now Saber and leave him to me." Caster's presence had all but been forgotten about by this point, aided by her Magecraft, while they all focused on something else, Lancer and Saber on their battle and Shirou on surviving the fallout of each of their strikes, and her sudden reappearance was, almost, a surprise to all of them.

"Why do you people keep interrupting me, this worm deserves to die!" Saber turned towards Caster, launching towards her with a blast of pure Prana from around her body, something that Shirou was forced to look away from, a side effect of a still active full body Reinforcement, his enhanced senses, particularly his eyesight, burned in agony at the sight.

Caster wisely kept her distance from Saber, unleashing a dozen more beams of light that the enraged Servant didn't bother with defending against, all of the impacting and not even leaving a scratch on her armor. When Caster saw this, the witch immediately lost her mocking smirk, deciding she didn't want to die today and instead survive. This in mind, a wave of her staff created a large symbol in front of her, one that unleashed a flash of light that immobilized Saber, briefly, but long enough for dozens of smaller symbols to appear around her and bombard her with beams of light, the explosive force behind each beam undoubtedly stunning her. Well it would have if Saber hadn't been covered in a shield of Prana, a side effect of her recent use of her Prana Burst ability.

Just as Saber was about to strike down Caster, she froze when a truly monstrous wave of energy washed over both her and Caster, both either very resistant or powerful respectively when it came to power but nothing compared to what they were feeling now. Caster after a moment, despite what she knew was happening as her mind identified the cause of the wave of power, merely laughed as her once absent grin returned in full force.

"Ohohoho, this War is shaping up to be one for the ages." Caster didn't bother with staying any longer, not when THAT was summoned into the War. She needed to adjust many of her plans or risk far too many problems from the fallout of all of this. With a few muttered words she vanished, quickly sinking into the ground as a new glowing symbol appeared around her as she did so.

Saber did not hear Caster's words, she instead was rushing back towards the shed, absentmindedly noting that Archer and Rider were rushing to it as well, even Lancer had leaped back over into the yard from the alley and landed in front of the shed, turning to face it when she rushed past. It was just as she stepped through the ruined door, Archer taking down a wall with his body, Rider appearing at his side, and Lancer following Archer's example on the opposite side of the door, that they were all blinded by an intense light.

Shirou could only stare in shock at the now smoking symbol beneath him, something he had been knocked into after he had crashed through the bookcase and it seemed it had been leeching alarming amounts of his Prana out of his body, feeding itself with the stolen energy. Draining a Magus stores of energy were no easy task but this odd circle easily did so, glowing brighter the more it absorbed before eventually releasing a blinding light when Shirou felt as if he was burning from the inside out, almost all of his Magic Circuits open and stored energy spilling out of them to help fuel the symbol beneath him.

It was the same moment that the symbol flashed with light when he felt an intense burning running up and down his entire left arm, a crimson glow emerging from underneath his sleeves. It was an easy thing to tear them off, they were partly falling off in the first place from the beating he had taken tonight, and he now saw the markings feeling as if they were burning themselves into his skin. The pain ended in mere moments but a throbbing agony still remained, one that Shirou could ignore, his horrorstricken mind very easily doing so.

He now knew why the symbol beneath him had taken so much of his energy.

He had summoned another monster, one of them that had been plaguing him this entire night.

Emotionless amber eyes looked down at Shirou, as if searching his soul, searching him for anything of worth. Weapons covered the figure, belts of knives across their body, swords and short blades hanging at their waist, a multitude of pouches along their belt, and several weapons on their back. Their armor was clearly a finely made set, it gleaming in the moonlight despite it's rather clear age, a very old one. The already intimidating figure was completed by the hood they wore, shaped as if it was the beak of an eagle.

Shirou, despite what many would expect from him, simply resigned himself to his fate, his exhausted body collapsing as he waited for this new monster to kill him, he doubted he would even see it coming so didn't bother closing his eyes, simply waiting, meeting the figure's amber colored eyes with resolute grey ones. His attitude seemed to be amusing to the figure as their scarred lips lifted in a small smirk as they knelt down, crossing an arm over their chest as they slightly bowed their head.

"I am Servant Ruler and at your bidding I have come forth. So I ask of you, are you my Master?"

* * *

AN: Well, how was it?


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